Chapter 3

Chapter 3

He Wei was stunned.

In her previous life, she hadn’t had much interaction with this man, yet she could somehow recognize his voice immediately.

Low and pleasant — it was unmistakably Yan Huai.

He Wei found it increasingly unbelievable.

The man who had been intertwining fingers with her in bed just last night was now standing three meters away, his expression cold, brows slightly furrowed, carrying a faint trace of irritability as if he hadn’t rested well.

He Wei pressed her lips tightly together, jaw clenched. In this early spring weather that was still chilly, sweat was about to break out on her forehead. She froze for several seconds before realizing that Yan Huai in this life probably didn’t know her yet.

Fortunately, it wasn’t too bad.

He Wei took a few deep breaths, forced herself to look away, and pretended to be a shy girlfriend whose intimate moment with her boyfriend had just been interrupted. She lowered her head and buried half her face into her scarf.

Yan Chen raised his arm and wrapped it around her shoulders. The displeasure on his face had completely vanished. The corner of his mouth lifted into a lazy smile. “Bro, does Dad know you’re home?”

Yan Huai gave a low “Mm,” pulled the car door open again, and tilted his chin slightly. “The car.”

They were blocking his way.

He Wei’s tightly tensed shoulders finally relaxed a little.

No wonder his expression looked so bad — he was simply annoyed that the two of them were in his way.

Yan Chen had already released her shoulder. He lowered his head and explained softly, “That’s my brother, Yan Huai.”

He Wei nodded.

The girl kept her head lowered. The small exposed portion of her face was very fair, looking delicate and fragile. Yan Chen couldn’t resist reaching out to touch it. “I’ll go move the car. It’s cold outside. You can follow my brother’s car and head in first.”

To He Wei, the Yan brothers were one a beast and the other worse than a beast.

She hesitated for two seconds, then subconsciously grabbed Yan Chen’s sleeve. “I’ll wait for you.”

She didn’t dare be alone with Yan Huai.

Last night’s intimacy had been neither satisfying nor beautiful. He Wei had no idea what Yan Huai felt toward her — whether he genuinely liked her or simply saw her as a convenient woman to satisfy his physical needs.

Either reason was hard to accept.

After all, she was his younger brother’s girlfriend.

Thinking back to last night’s experience, He Wei’s mind wavered for a moment.

It wasn’t until Yan Chen suddenly took her hand that she snapped back to reality. The man was clearly pleased by her words about waiting for him; both the corners of his mouth and his brows lifted with delight. “Then be good and wait for me.”

He Wei obediently agreed.

She tried her best to stop herself from pulling her hand out of his, enduring for several seconds until he finally let go, turned around, opened the car door, and got back in.

A few meters away, the door of the black Bentley was still open. Yan Huai’s hand rested halfway on the door. He narrowed his eyes slightly and watched as Yan Chen drove away. Then he saw the woman standing by the wrought-iron gate pull down her scarf and bring the hand that Yan Chen had just held to her nose, sniffing it lightly.

Less than a second later, she frowned and lowered her hand.

The corner of Yan Huai’s mouth twitched. He casually stubbed out his cigarette against the wall, tossed it into the trash bin, withdrew his gaze, and got into the car.

The two cars drove past one after the other.

Only then did He Wei finally breathe a complete sigh of relief.

The strong scent of women’s perfume that Yan Chen had left on her hand still lingered at the tip of her nose, thick and refusing to dissipate.

He Wei sneezed and quickly pulled her scarf back up.

Half a minute later, Yan Chen got out of the car again. He Wei saw that the favorability value above his head had risen from sixty-three to sixty-five.

She had rejected his request for a kiss, yet his favorability had still increased.

Watching Yan Chen walk toward her with a smile in his eyes, He Wei quickly composed her expression and trotted forward to meet him.

Seeing that he was about to reach for her hand again, He Wei slipped her hands into her pockets first. Fortunately, Yan Chen didn’t think much of it and simply put his arm around her shoulders instead as they went inside.

The Yan family residence covered a large area. Even one garden was as big as half of He Wei’s neighborhood. Although it was early spring, many kinds of flowers were already blooming in the courtyard.

A breeze passed by, carrying waves of fragrance.

He Wei, however, had no mood to appreciate it. After getting together with her, Yan Chen had shown no restraint at all in his playboy nature. He must have just met some woman — the perfume on him almost overpowered the scent of the flowers.

He Wei had always been sensitive to scents. After smelling it for a while, she only felt a little dizzy. Her slender brows furrowed tightly as she swallowed hard to keep herself from feeling worse.

Yan Chen was quite attentive. Noticing that her face had remained pale the whole time, he reached out and touched her forehead. “What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”

He Wei’s brows furrowed even deeper. Just as she was about to push him away, her phone rang. She let out a breath, curved her lips, and looked up at him. “You go in first. I’ll take this call.”

Yan Chen adjusted her collar for her. “It’s cold outside. Come in soon.”

He Wei nodded. She only took out her phone after watching him walk through the door.

The caller was Cheng Nuo.

He Wei was overjoyed, practically treating Cheng Nuo as her savior. She couldn’t control the heavy delight in her voice when she answered. “Nuo Nuo!”

Cheng Nuo was startled by her sudden enthusiasm. After a few seconds of daze, she said blankly, “Wei Wei, don’t forget the audition this afternoon at four o’clock at the set near Yueyang Mall.”

“Don’t worry, I remember.”

“By the way, Wei Wei… I don’t think Yan Chen is very reliable. I casually asked my brother earlier, and he said that this young master has dated so many girlfriends they could circle our school’s teaching building once… Are you sure he’s serious this time?”

Cheng Nuo’s description matched exactly what the system had told her when she first transmigrated. He Wei sighed. “Let’s take it one step at a time.”

There was no other choice anyway.

Breaking up wouldn’t be possible in the short term.

Knowing that it was about feelings, Cheng Nuo understood that saying more would be useless. After a few more reminders, she hung up.

He Wei checked the time. The call had lasted just over two minutes.

She exhaled, then heard footsteps approaching from not far away. Guessing who it was, she didn’t even dare turn her head. Gripping her phone tightly, she quickly walked into the Yan family’s magnificent villa.

A few meters behind her, the man who was on the phone paused slightly in his steps. Remembering the evasive look in He Wei’s eyes when she saw him earlier, he subtly furrowed his brows.

The man on the other end of the phone urged, “Did you hear me?”

“Mm.”

He hadn’t heard.

“Remember to come—”

Yan Huai hung up.

In a wealthy family like the Yan family, relationships had always been complicated and hard to sort out.

While waiting for dinner, Yan Chen and Yan Huai exchanged occasional small talk. He Wei sat beside them and quietly asked the system, “How is their relationship?”

In her previous attempts, He Wei had only treated Yan Huai as an insignificant male side character, so she hadn’t paid much attention to him. Ever since the last experience, she realized she couldn’t underestimate any male supporting character.

Even the most invisible male side character might end up sleeping with the male protagonist’s woman.

He Wei lowered her head and fiddled with her slender fingers, then heard the system reply with rare efficiency: “Not good.”

He Wei raised an eyebrow.

The system explained, “According to the book’s setting, the male protagonist Yan Chen’s parents had a business marriage with no real feelings. The male protagonist’s older brother is the child of his father and his first love. In the author’s words, he’s considered a half-illegitimate son. After his biological mother passed away, he was brought back to the Yan family by his father. Because the father still harbors feelings for his first love, he favors the older brother more.”

He Wei understood.

That meant in the Yan family, Yan Huai received more favor from their father. No wonder Yan Chen rarely mentioned this older brother to her.

After clarifying the relationship, He Wei found the seemingly calm conversation between the two brothers increasingly hypocritical.

Bored, she reached out and picked a grape from the fruit plate. “Why did he appear earlier than in the previous attempts this time?”

The system was silent for a moment, then beeped. “Host, an upper-level notice just came in. Because you have failed ten times, the eleventh round will reset the plot.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means the author has scrapped and rewritten the previous plot.”

He Wei: “…”

System: “Host, please don’t be angry… Although the plot has been overturned, the character settings remain unchanged, so…”

He Wei couldn’t even eat the grape anymore. She pulled out a tissue and wiped her hands. “So we have to start over from the beginning.”

The system fell silent.

He Wei sighed. After a few seconds of silence, she still had to comfort this fragile, innocent system. “It’s okay. We’ll just die a few more times.”

“…Host, I-I will work hard to level up.”

He Wei was amused by its aggrieved and stiff tone. The corners of her mouth curved up, revealing a shallow dimple on her left cheek. When she looked up again, her eyes happened to meet the man sitting across from her.

The man’s gaze was indifferent, polite yet distant. It seemed like he had glanced at her unintentionally. Less than half a second later, he shifted his eyes away and never looked at her directly again, appearing like a proper gentleman with a pure and desireless expression.

He Wei quickly looked away as well.

The fingers she had clenched together relaxed slightly. Fortunately, Yan Huai didn’t seem to have even the slightest interest in her this time.

What wonderful news.

He Wei even ate an extra half bowl of rice at lunch.

The Yan parents were away — one on a business trip, the other traveling abroad. Other than the servants, only the three of them were in the house.

Yan Chen hadn’t expected Yan Huai to come home today. He had originally brought He Wei back to deepen their relationship through some alone time. Now it had turned into a group of three. Although the third person didn’t say a single word during the meal, just sitting there was enough to stop Yan Chen from doing anything too outrageous.

There was no sweet kiss, not even a hug.

At two o’clock in the afternoon, He Wei left the Yan residence.

The moment she stepped out of the villa, she felt the air become much fresher. After taking a few deep breaths, she curved her lips, hailed a taxi, and headed to the set.

The set wasn’t too close to the Yan house. When He Wei got out of the car, it was nearly 2:30.

Before coming, Cheng Nuo had sent her the character profile for the fourth female lead and a short audition scene. He Wei wasn’t a professional actress in her original world, but after transmigrating into the book for a year, she had played quite a few supporting roles of all sizes and had developed some acting skills, so she still had a bit of confidence.

Though only a bit.

At three o’clock, the makeup artist finished doing the makeup for the dozen or so actors who had come for the audition. They were just waiting for the director and investors to arrive at four.

This drama was a Tang dynasty palace drama. The fourth female lead He Wei was auditioning for was a vicious consort. To match the character, her costume was more revealing than the others.

He Wei felt something was off. She stared at herself in the mirror for a long time, then frowned and asked the system, “Will there be any abuse points here?”

System: “Beginning exploration… Exploring… Exploration complete.”

The next second, before the system could say anything, someone outside called, “Number 12, He Wei, it’s your turn.”

He Wei quickly lifted her skirt and walked out. The moment she reached the camera, the system’s weak voice finally sounded: “Host, the clothes are bro—broken…”

The mechanical voice was clear, especially jarring in the pin-drop silent set.

He Wei’s face turned pale. She had just taken a breath when, as she exhaled, she heard a faint sound of fabric tearing.

In the next instant, someone let out a soft gasp.

The piece of fabric connecting He Wei’s shoulder to her chest split open and was about to slide off her shoulder. Before she could react and grab it to prevent it from falling from her chest, a men’s suit jacket was suddenly draped over her shoulders from above.

He Wei was still clutching the torn piece of fabric. She subconsciously tried to step back, but before she could retreat even half a step, someone grabbed her collar and pulled her back. The man’s voice was low, carrying a faint trace of impatience. “What are you dodging for?”

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